How do you like the iPhone 5 headset jack on the bottom?

With the iPhone 5 Apple has moved our trusty 3.5 mm headset jack from where it's always previously been at the top of the device, to a new location at the bottom.

What do you think? Was this a good move on Apple's part? If you're wearing a headset, does it make it easier to put your iPhone in your pocket, or harder to leave it on a dock? Or do you not use or simply not care where Apple puts the headset jack on the iPhone?

Reader comments

How do you like the iPhone 5 headset jack on the bottom?

i hate it because im a big ios gamer, see i spend a lot of time on a job not doing much, so i game, i have a 4s and my roomate just got the 5, with the dock connector and headphones plugged in i hate it it is so awkward to hold sideways and comfortably, before i used to have a cable on each side of the phone running between my fingers and it felt fine, now the space between the dock connector and jack is to thin to put a finger thru but to wide to have both cables going between 2 fingers, its terrible, i was really looking forward to the wider screen for more onscreen space for touch controls but now just how uncomfortable it is is turning me off of getting this phone, please tell me you guys agree its uncomfortable, how do you hold it?

I am pretty sure it comes down to perosnal prefference. I myself hate it because I wear overalls and it slides into the the pocket so all I have to do is just plug in my headphones. If I need to fast forward a track I can and also see who is calling me by slightly pulling the phone out, but as I have said it really is personal prefference on what you like.

Having the headphone jack on the bottom is terrible for me. Like some of the other posters, I use my iPhone with a treadmill and I can no longer do so without standing the iPhone 5 upside down. Same thing goes with putting the iPhone in my cup holder or on my desktop iPhone stand. Apple really should have added auto-rotate to the iPhone when they changed the location of the headphone jack. This seems really obvious as it's similar to how the iPad works.

Even when I'm holding the phone and using it, having the headphone cable on the bottom is irritatingly in the way at times. Beyond the location of the jack, the headphone output quality of the new iPhone is noticeably worse than the 4S. It needs a new headphone amplifier chip or some other fix.

IMO, there was nothing wrong with the previous location of the headphone jack. And the audio quality of the 4/4S was super good, the best of all phones, or close to it. I'm not sure why Apple changed things. All of this means I'm most likely going to return my iPhone 5 for a refund. It's a nice phone, but falls on its face when it comes to working well with headphones.

I have the new iPhone 5 (after having had an iPhone 4 for the past 2 1/2 years), and I hate the new headphone jack position for the following reasons:

1) muscle memory from having had an iPhone 4 for so long does make it very frustrating to keep wanting to plug my earbuds/earpods into the wrong end of the phone for the first 30 seconds every time I reach for the phone
2) I practically live with headphones plugged into my iPhone, and having the cable hanging out of the bottom actually makes the phone uncomfortable and awkward to use one-handed. I'm used to being able to stabilize the phone in my hand by cupping the lower end of the phone, but the audio jack is now in the way.
3) As previous commenters have already mentioned, placing the phone into a cupholder in a car or in a treadmill at a gym/etc is now awkward if you prefer to have the phone right-side up
4) I use my phone in my car over a bluetooth connection, so there is no issue with having multiple connectors coming out of my phone from opposite ends (come on people: you have an advanced technology phone; enter the 21st century with your car's audio connetictivity).

So, to sum up my point (and to repeat myself): I HATE HATE HATE the new position of the headphone jack, but still love my new iPhone 5.

I am a guy and I will out the phone in my jeans pocket while listing to music. Since I hold the phone with the home button down, it goes in my pocket uoside down. This works perfect with the headjack on bottom.

As for the headset jack I really don't care where they put it. The problem I have is this Lightning connector. I HATE IT! I really don't see why they did it. And here I am, now having to wait until the end of the freakin month to get a lightning adapter. Everywhere I've looked it's the same thing. Will ship or be released around October the 30th or something like that. This really bites.

I am not going to an iPhone 5 for this reason as well as the new dock connector. Even if they supply an conversion adapter to the old 30 pin connector, it still would be an issue for me because of the headphone jack at the bottom.

Apple sees no problem is causing people to buy all new supporting devices. I have an alarm clock, car adapter as well as a battery pack. All useless either because of the headphone jack or the dock connector.

Also the new lightning dock connector doesn't support HDMI out. I have an Apple TV at home, so I can use airplay. But when I go to a friends house and want to connect my iPhone to their TV, I have the adapter that connects my phone to HDMI cable. That cable, even with the lightning conversion cable to 30 pic, will not work with HDMI. So I would have to carry around my apple TV if I want to use my friends TV to show stuff off my iphone. Thanks apple to making things MORE difficult.

Thanks again Apple for making us buy all new stuff and for NOT being customer focused! I'll keep my iPhone 4S thank you. Not much changes anyway. And I get all the functionality of IOS6 except 1 feature.

What a silly topic to talk about, but yet people still find a problem with this lol. Personally, I actually think that having the headset jack on the bottom of the iPhone 5 makes tons of sense. It's less messy and easier to make a quick call or launch an app since the phones top portion slides right side up when you pull it from your pocket.

Not a fan of the new position. My first iPhone 5 suffered (apparently) from crosstalk between the headphone and lightning ports, in that I could hear a hum when I did things on the phone (scroll, quit apps, etc)

Apple exchanged it, and the new phone does not have this problem, but I still find it less convenient - it makes it very inconvenient to plug/unplug headphones when docked, and, like Gazoobee, I would prefer it on the opposite side so it is not up against my hand while holding it.

I like the new jack on the bottom, it's the best place for it but ... it should actually be on the *other* side at the bottom (starboard instead of port).

Most folks are right handed and thus hold the phone in the left hand and put it in the left-hand trouser pocket (if they wear trousers). Since, when the phone is facing you the jack is on the left side, it makes it harder to hold in your hand than it needs to be and when you put it in and out of your pocket, the wires are always under your hand and in the way.

The jack should be on the starboard side of the phone (right-side when it's facing you) not the left.

I have another brand smart phone and the headphone jack is at the top BUT, when im listening to music or podcast etc... I find myself turning the phone upside down (jack is now at the bottom) and it's so much eaiser and comfortable to use. I wish all phones had the jack at the bottom. Btw, my next phone is the i5.

Why are people that don't have the phone commenting?? How can you make a decision without actually using it. I am new 'Apple convert' and I like where it is. When it is in my pocket it is top down, face towards my leg. When I pull it out everything is comfortably where it needs to be. The headphone cord is hanging by my wrist and not in the way of the screen (which is probably why they changed it in the first place).

For those that 'hate' it (can't understand why it is that important that you could -- hate-- the placement of headphone jack lol), with the original location how often did you have an issue with the cord being in front of screen? Or having to bend the cord behind the iPhone to keep it out of the way? And if you say never, you are truly a liar...

You hit the nail on the head if you ask me. The head phones were always just a bit to short because the natural movement to put away you're phone is top of phone facing the ground. I would always either have to take it out again turn it the "right" way so as not to tighten up the slack on the headphones, or worse--try to spin it around in my pocket. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Bottom of phone headphone-jack was long over due..

Position is good for keeping the rain out (saved apple the cost of one water sensor too.)

Who cares if it is blocked when on a docking station, we're moving toward wireless headsets anyway... I wonder how long before this port disappears anyway (possibly being integrated into the lightening port.)

Exactly where it should've been all along; when you're wearing headphones the iPhone now comes out of your pocket in the right direction, and the cable no longer gets in the way of the camera lens when you're snapping photos in a hurry.

As for the whole dock audio issue, that's kind of moot right now seeing as the primary connector doesn't fit anyway. I'm not sure how an adapter is going to work with the "universal" docks that relied solely on the 30-pin connector to prop up the phone--certainly wouldn't wanna try that with Lightning.

Half like it. While I don't have an iPhone 5 yet, you have to plug it in like an iPod Touch now which is good. But the dock connector I don't like. (Ps: there are no docks in transition this year. It's been confirmed by other news sources.) There won't be audio support on this model and you have to spend hundreds of dollars on accessories all over again.

don't like it but i'm not getting an iphone 5. But i still like it on top. keep i where it is. Also no that they've ruined the dock connector so i get no line in in my car, Well it sits in a cradle. now i'd be forced to use the crappy audio port but that's covered by the cradle arms on the bottom of the cradle. It just occured to me that how is the iphone gonna sit in the cradle, and allow access to the bottom. IT can't the bottom is what the iphone rests on, covering that port.

it's one of the many ideas in the past year that apple has had that i honestly don't get where they are coming from. I think the phone is nice, and i'm not the sort that's an apple fanboy, but i just think the gap between them and other phone is narrowing and worse many changes they make are not improvements: dock connector, maps, the grey look of music player. And many other things strike me as half assed, podcast app, passbook launch, those ugly appletv icons, app store changes give shitty sorting,

apple has rarely "innovated." That's marketing. But Apple is the second guy. That's often the guy you want to be. The first guy loses money and fails.

But in general, i was thinking when the 4s came out that pretty much EVERY cell phone had kinda exhausted the big ideas. That now they are just like 3d and movies, not needed. Like take laptops. other then thin ultrabooks there isn't much innovation. it's exhausted. i'm not saying nobody invents anything but consumers are making drastic jumps in the hardware they buy, like when one year they were buying cd burners, then another it was dvd burners, and then ooo huge storage, then the innovations were like ever faster processing, that allowed you to rip dvds and rip movies, and edit movies. At some point computer makers exhausted everything. last years laptop is generally similar and as good as this years.

i think phones are close to the same spot. once you got movies, video recording, music, and cloud storage there isn't a ton of other things going on. maybe live tv on your phone but we kinda get that already too, just not so much over cellular. But for me, other then LTE there's no big feature in the pipeline that i gotta have. it's simply about who does it best or best according to my needs.

what I'm saying is, why is this even an issue? a very small percentage of users will even care about the change. Why do they have to publicize something so trivial, just to add another bullet point to the list of new "features"? next thing you know, they'll have a patent on bottom headphone jacks.

Love it. I use the iPhone in my car to listen to podcasts every day. I have it mounted on the windshield and like having both cables coming out of the bottom. Looks nicer not having the headset cable sticking out of the top.

Ditto. I hated how it used to look with one cable coming out the top and one out the bottom. Now I'm able to take the audio and sync cable and tape them together and build a little charing dock for my car - finally clean it all up.

And when it's in my pocket, who cares if the phone is upside down or not.

I don't have a 5 but when I had an iPhone I always thought that having a jack on the bottom made more sense as you can pull it right out of your pocket and use it instead of risk dropping it by flipping it in your hand.

This is the biggest draw for me for the jack on the bottom. I have a Corolla and sticking the phone in the best place in the dashboard it's awkward to have the charge cable on one end and the aux out (headphone) port on the other. Now granted my fix is Bluetooth for my phone but when we listen to my wife's phone the awkward thing is back.

Frankly when I have my phone in a dock I have external speakers connected to that so I don't care where the jack is in that situation.

I had an HTC EVO 4G before the iPhone 5. That phone has it's jack in the top. I am constantly trying to place the cable in the top of the phone, then I flip the phone around after scratching the top of the phone for a split second. It's rather annoying. I imagine it will take a while for my muscle memory to catch up to reality.